Why did Obama snub Spanish-language TV on Syria? Column

Sep. 13, 2013
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President Obama / Jewel Samad, AFP

by Raul Reyes , USATODAY

by Raul Reyes , USATODAY

This week President Obama went on a media blitz before his Tuesday night speech on Syria. He gave sit-down interviews to six networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and Fox News -- to make his case for a U.S. response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. But he did not schedule any interviews with Spanish-language television, which annoyed Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. "Latinos are serving in the U.S. military," he tweeted. "But none of the six interviews given today by Obama include Univision." He added the hashtag, "LessonsNOTLearned."

Ramos rightly feels slighted by the Obama administration. It was a mistake for the president not to visit with either Univision or Telemundo, because the two Spanish-language networks are attracting record audiences. Not only do Hispanics constitute an important part of the president's base, Latinos are just as interested in the possibility of a military action in Syria as other Americans.

If the president's goal were to take his message to as many Americans as possible, it is hard to imagine why he skipped the Spanish-language networks. This summer, Univision hit a rating milestone when it outdrew its English counterparts and won the competitive 18-49 age demographic during the July sweeps. Daily Variety reports that both Univision and Telemundo are having a strong year in the ratings. Snubbing both of these news outlets simply does not make good strategic sense.

Jose Zamora, a spokesperson for Univision, told Politico that the network "did everything possible" to land an interview with the president when the opportunity was announced. But the White House decided to ignore both Univision and Telemundo, and that's a shame. Consider that an August Gallup poll shows that 63% of Hispanics approve of the job the president is doing, which is well above the national average of 49% approval. Or that in the 2012 presidential election, 71% of Latinos turned out for Obama, compared with only 27% for Mitt Romney. At a time of crisis, President Obama needs all the support he can get. So why pass on a chance to reach millions of Latino viewers?

A troubling takeaway from this episode is the possibility that president didn't appear on Spanish-language media because he was not speaking about immigration. Yet Hispanics care about U.S. military action, just as we also care about jobs, education and health care. In fact, Hispanic families care deeply about U.S. military action because so many Hispanics serve in the armed forces. Lieutenant Commander Nate Christensen, a Department of Defense spokesman, told NBC Latino that Hispanics are 11.4% of active-duty military personnel, or more than 157,000 people. These numbers give Latino service members and their families a personal stake in any potential American military strikes overseas.

The Obama administration should start including Spanish-language networks on its list of influential media outlets. Leaving Univision and Telemundo out of the discussion on Syria was a myopic, shortsighted decision.

Raul Reyes is an attorney and member of the USA Today Board of Contributors.